Lucy turned on the stove in November trying to get to a cake.

RICK WILSON/The Times-UnionKay Wardlow hugs David Brown after she and her husband, Chris, thanked the ADT operator for alerting them to a possible fire at their home. The Wardlow's dog, Lucy, accidently turned on the stove while trying to reach a cake sitting on top of the stove.

RICK WILSON/The Times-UnionADT Emergency Dispatch Operator David Brown greets Lucy, a Labrador-basset hound mix, Tuesday as owners Chris and Kay Wardlow and ADT President John Koch (back right) watch. Brown saved the Oklahoma couple's home in November by alerting them that their fire alarm had been triggered.

Lucy's love of cake almost brought a Norman, Okla., house down Nov. 19.

But a 19-year-old ADT Security Services trainee on Jacksonville's Southside saved the house and the Labrador-basset hound mix - the cake didn't make it.

Lucy and her owners traveled to Jacksonville on Tuesday to thank David Brown for his quick actions when the dog accidentally turned on a gas stove while trying to get her paws on some cake. Kay Wardlow said she was "scared to death" when Brown called to say the security system detected fire but glad when only thick smoke - and a happy dog - greeted her at home.

"I knew that in 14 years our alarm had never gone off, so I knew there was something serious," she said. "I don't think I was angry [at Lucy]. I couldn't believe, of all of the things she had done, that she would nearly burn our house down."

Brown, training as an emergency dispatch operator at the time, said he was just doing his job. But he said he was glad it worked out after Lucy gave him a kiss and the Wardlows presented him with an Oklahoma Sooners football jersey.

"I feel very proud because it is not every day that you save someone's house from burning down," he said. "The majority of times it's a false alarm. But we have to treat every alarm as if it was an actual alarm."

ADT's center on Deerwood Park Boulevard is one of four in the country monitoring about 5.5 million alarm system customers.

When Lucy bumped the stove knob, within seconds the burner melted the plastic lid creating heavy smoke, said ADT President John Koch.

That triggered the fire alarm, and Brown's computer alerted him. He called the fire department, the house and Kay Wardlow's cell phone.

Why travel 1,150 miles to say "Thank you"?

"It is the right thing to do to thank somebody for doing exactly what they are supposed to do and helping save our family, our house and our dog," Chris Wardlow said.

As for Lucy, cakes are now stored out of paws' reach, while dog treats came her way for behaving at Tuesday's meeting.